Chinese women gymnasts are old enough and eligible to compete in the Beijing Olympics, and the controversial age case is now closed, said the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG) in its official statement.

The gymnastics world governing body "has completed its investigation into the ages of Chinese team gymnasts who competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games", FIG said in the statement posted Wednesday on its official website www.fig-gymnastics.com.

"The FIG has shared its conclusions with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which originally requested the inquiry. It is considered that the case is now concluded," FIG said in the statement.

"Originals of official documents received from the Chinese Gymnastics Association, specifically passports, identity cards and family booklets or 'Household Registers', confirm the ages of the athletes," said the statement.

After the Chinese women gymnasts harvested the Olympic team gold in Beijing, media rumors spread out claiming that the hosts have fielded ineligible athletes, as gymnasts must turn 16 in the year of an Olympics to take part.

Thus, the FIG had asked the Chinese gymnastics federation to submit documents proving the birthdates of five members of the gold medal-winning team, namely He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, Deng Linlin and Yang Yilin.

And the IOC also specifically asked the FIG to investigate double Olympic gold-medallist He, who was registered as 16 while rumors suggested she may have been 14. He also won the uneven bars title with a tiebreak rule against American Nastia Liukin.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics where the hosts collected nine of the 14 gold medals up for grabs in the artistic gymnastics, Chinese coaches and gymnasts had kept saying that any discrepancies were either Web site inaccuracies or paperwork errors, but their explanation still failed to stop the rumors.

On FIG's statement, Liukin said she was pleased with the level of scrutiny given to the issue.

"When the questions arose originally in the press all anyone in the gymnastics and Olympic communities wanted was closure which we now have," Liukin said in a statement.

"Again, I congratulate my competitors from China and look forward to using my successes to help others," said the American gymnast.

The age issue of gymnasts has been the sport's little secret for years. The minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 in 1981 to protect young athletes from serious injuries, and again up to its current 16 in 1997.

However, there have been examples of teams trying to skirt the rules.

Romania admitted some of its gymnasts' ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu.

DPR Korea was banned from the 1993 world championships after FIG discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row.

Hopefully, the FIG is moving forward with a licensing system that would serve as proof of age for a gymnast's entire career.

Beginning next year, the FIG will require any gymnast who competes in an international competition at either the junior or senior level to have a license based on a passport.

(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2008)